EIB announces first projects to be financed through Investment Plan for Europe

On 22 April 2015, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced that the Boards of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) had approved the first projects and transactions earmarked for benefitting from an EU budget guarantee under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). Within the framework of the EFSI, the EIB Group will assume risks in projects to encourage greater private and public sector investment. The EIB and EIF will manage the EFSI initiative .

The EIB’s first EFSI earmarked projects are due to receive up to € 300 million in financing and include investment in healthcare research in Spain, expansion of a key airport in Croatia, the construction of 14 new healthcare centres across Ireland and backing for industrial innovation in Italy. The EIB board approved loans totalling up to EUR 300 million for projects expected to be financed under the EFSI initiative that will support overall investment of around EUR 850 million for public and private sector projects.

European Commission's Vice-President Katainen welcomed the EIB's announcement, saying that the projects selected from different sectors (R&D, health care, industrial innovation, transport) and in different countries served as examples of investments that the new European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) may support in the near future. The Vice-President called this "fantastic news for investment in Europe. We are only in April, and already the EIB has fulfilled its commitment to pre-finance projects until the EFSI is fully operational."